Tear the Roof off the Sucker

Very tired from the successful incline climb and impending bad weather, I thought it was high time I broke down and got a hotel room, or with my budget, a motel room. Not many people know that Motels and Hotels are different (at least according to Webster). Motels came into existence with the advent of automobiles and freeways. Their main difference from Hotels is that that you can park your car right outside of your room.  Given that I am hauling a lot of my stuff in my car I prefer to have it close by so I can hear anyone who desires to take possession of my stuff while I am tucked away for the evening. It has happened before, while I in a hotel far away from the car. Never again.

I was very near the Old Colorado Springs which is Motel row. Booking online, I was surprised at the prices. They aren’t cheap but you do get more than a Motel 6. For about $100, there was a Bedroom, sitting room and kitchen. Proudly showing the remodel from back in the 70’s. All I cared about was a hot shower and a full listing of Cable TV channels.

It took me a couple of passes up and down the road to find it but I finally pulled in and started looking for a place to park the car and trailer. There were only a couple spots where there was room but only one was open.  But a tight turn with my limited turn radius so I headed to the back of the motel to take another run at it.

I heard a shout then a bang and a scraping sound. The shout was another resident who saw the impending doom and was shouting out an unheeded warning, The bang was my Surly Bike hitting an overhang,  the tire popping and the roof rack cross beams being ripped away from the car. The scraping was the bike and rack rubbing against the car roof and slamming to the pavement

It brought all the other residents to the parking lot and was quite embarrassing. The bike was still locked into the bike rack and cumbersome to move out of the way and the car and trailer was in the way of other guests coming in. Total mess.

Too late for dignity, so I scrambled to get the bike moved off the road and the car parked. I checked in and with even less dignity then I thought was possible, dragged the bike, still locked to the bike rack that was still attached to the remains of the car rack across the parking lot, past the crowded pool and back to the room. It goes without saying (but I will), any euphoria from the successful climb had more than worn off.

It was dinner time though, and I was starving. I didn’t want to give up the parking spots so I set out on foot. I ended up waling quite a while. Too tired, hungry and angry to choose from the fast food restaurants that were surprisingly few and far. The road was pretty busy and there wasn’t much of a side walk so I was walking through overgrown weeds and crumbling asphalt lots of empty strip centers. I finally gave up and went to Wendy’s where the screwed up my order. I was compensated with a chocolate Frosty so things were turning around. Not quickly though, I still had to walk the 2 miles back to the room over the same rough terrain that got me there.

I made it back without incident and crawled into bed with the remote and was reminded again, why I gave up my cable subscription years ago.

I awoke to a sunny morning and a big problem. How to get a new roof rack for a 2002 Ford Escape. I can’t imagine that they are in high demand as most people that have 2002 Ford Escapes are so stupid as to have them ripped off the roof all that often. I went down to the Ford Dealer and maybe I am not that uncommon because they found one up in Denver and could have it on the next delivery truck to Colorado Springs. I paid for it and settled into the Dealership Lounge to wait. I got restless after about 15 minutes and took a stroll through the sales floor.  Wow, I hadn’t bought a car in 1lmost 15 years.  They have gotten pricey. I need to start taking better care of the Escape.

Around noon and with the sun beating down on my car, I was on the side of the road gingerly installing the new rack on the extremely hot roof.

I was thinking I was going to stay in Colorado Springs for a couple of days to look around. It looked very inviting as I drove in the previous day. But with the bike back on the roof, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Into the mountains I drove.

As a Post Script to you kind souls that are giving me the benefit of the doubt that I am not stupid and that it is an easy mistake to forget that the bike was up there until too late. Well, I did the exact same thing 3 weeks later in Laughlin, NV. The Bike is now riding inside the car with me. It is a good thing that it is a steel bike because it is taking a beating on this trip.